Immortal Pleasures is a truly unique book. Part horror, part romance, part paranormal, part historical fiction, this book checks many boxes within its meagre 304-page count. Something within itself should be seen as impressive. This is even more impressive because it blends these genres almost seamlessly and only enhances a truly interesting plot. 

Immortal Pleasures is the story of La Malinche. A name many Spanish-speaking people (especially from Mexico) may recognise from the colloquial (and problematic) term malinchista, or “race traitor”. Castro does something admirable with the figure of La Malinche, and presents her story from an empathic and feminine perspective. As most of history is told and retold by men through the male perspective, there is often little sympathy to be had for women, especially when those women were victims of the history they were forced to be a part of. Castro presents La Malinche, also called Malinalli, as a tragic heroine. Forced into slavery, she made many hard decisions to protect herself, but would ultimately hurt her people as well. She is conscious of her role in history and takes accountability for that role, but also gives herself much-deserved grace as a young woman doing what she felt she had to do to survive in what amounted to a life-or-death situation. Castro explores the conflicting feelings and the deep trauma such an existence would cause. The added paranormal perspective also gives Malinalli a unique perspective of her situation in the context of her unique opportunity to see the long-term implications of the history written during her initial lifetime. This exploration of characters and their relationship to the plot makes this book unique and powerful. 

This book could have been written better, which is to be expected with the ambitious storyline and surprisingly short page count. There was a lot of telling, not showing, and a considerable amount of awkward repetition of details that often created a stilted flow in the prose. Additionally, so much character history was presented that the story has extensively fleshed-out characters that also fall flat. The writing often creates an odd experience of detachment from the characters but continued interest in a fascinating story. 
To say Immortal Pleasures is anything but an ambitious and important examination of a historical figure would be a disservice to Castro’s vision. The writing is rough around the edges, but that should not detract from the presented content. It may be hard for some to look past the shortcomings, but I hope they walk away from this book at least a little more conscientious of a part of history that is not given enough light of day.